


my heart grows warmer

by inquisitor_tohru



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Blizzards & Snowstorms, Gen or Pre-Slash, Huddling For Warmth, M/M, Stranded
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29161632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inquisitor_tohru/pseuds/inquisitor_tohru
Summary: The problems began with the snowstorm.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Armitage Hux
Comments: 6
Kudos: 21
Collections: Hoelidays Gift Exchange 2021





	my heart grows warmer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cat2000](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cat2000/gifts).



Scipio was notorious for its frigid climate and sub-zero temperatures, but its atmosphere was breathable, at least, if you didn't mind your breath coming out in billowing white clouds. Poe had planned for all of that, bringing thick gaberwool blankets, as well as coats, hats, gloves and boots lined with snowy wampa fur for the journey to the Main Vault Fortress. The mission - to negotiate with the prestigious InterGalactic Banking Clan on behalf of the (New) New Republic - ought to have been relatively simple. He'd only brought Hux along because he had the unique qualifications of being good with numbers  _ and  _ being unknown to the Muun bankers they'd be dealing with. 

The problems began with the snowstorm.

It was always a risk, on a planet like Scipio, and Poe was no stranger to flying in adverse conditions. He just liked to have a little more notice, so he and BB-8 could run through the calculations ahead of time. Minimize surprises. As things were, he'd had to make an emergency landing a few miles from the city.

"Are you quite done?" Hux asked, long arms folded around his upper body to pull his fur-lined coat closer, lest the snow should settle between his layers. Poe would have sighed, if he hadn't minded wasting his breath.

"Almost," he said. Without the proper equipment or a droid specially designed and programmed for the task, de-icing the little planet hopper was a real pain. With the additional challenge of a snowstorm, it bordered on unbearable. He'd pulled his scarf up over the lower half of his face, but his cheeks still prickled with cold and he could barely feel his nose. "You  _ could  _ help, you know. Or go back inside, if you're just going to complain." BB-8 chirped in annoyance, spinning around to shake the snow off his dome. "Not you, Beebee, you're doing great." 

Hux paced back and forth slowly, hindered by the fresh snow, not yet as densely packed together as what lay beneath. What Poe imagined was supposed to calm him down seemed only to heighten Hux's frustration at the situation. Poe sighed, and prepared to run through his pre-flight checklists. 

"Do you want the good news first, or the bad news?" Hux screwed up his face, suggesting neither. Poe carried on anyway. "Bad news is we're not going anywhere until we have better visibility. Also, the heating system is well and truly fucked." 

"That's  _ all _ bad news."

"Let me  _ finish."  _ He'd wanted to sound more commanding, but the way his teeth were chattering kind of ruined the effect. "The good news is that comms are fully functional, and I was able to contact the Muun. They're sending a snowspeeder to our location, once things clear up enough." BB-8 started warbling something about checking the generators as he rolled out of the crew quarters, and while Poe didn't catch the end of it, he got the general idea. 

"And what are we to do until then?  _ Freeze _ to death?" 

"Don't be so dramatic. It's not like you don't have experience with ice planets." Remembering Starkiller Base sent an entirely different sort of shiver down his spine. 

"I didn't go  _ outside,"  _ Hux snapped, as if that ought to have been obvious. To be honest, Poe wasn't sure why it hadn't been.

"Beebee is seeing what he can do with the generators," he said, moving swiftly on, "he's better at that kind of thing than I am. In the meantime, we have these." He shoved the ugliest of the gaberwool blankets into Hux's arms. It was, by his own standards, petty, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that  _ Hux  _ would probably have shredded his blanket with that monomolecular blade he thought Poe didn't know about.

It was all relative, really.

Night fell, and so did the temperature. BB-8 had begun to beep incessantly, entertaining Poe with stories about his last adventure with Finn and Rey to make sure he stayed awake. 

"No, Beebee," he chuckled, "you may  _ not _ zap him." The little astromech rolled in a way that gave the impression that he was tilting his head. "No, not even to keep him from falling asleep." 

"I  _ am  _ here, you know." Hux had bundled himself up in an extra blanket, though Poe could still see him trembling beneath all the layers. His lips were a more bluish shade of pink, and his skin had turned bone-white. Together with the sharpness of his cheekbones and the dark circles around his eyes, it made him look downright skeletal. Poe wouldn't have been surprised if he'd heard bones rattling under the blankets.

"I promise you, Hugs, we could never forget about you. Actually...that gives me an idea. Come here." He bit his lower lip, though he barely felt it, and lifted his own blankets in invitation.

_ "What?  _ No." Poe rolled his eyes.

"I don't mean to be rude, but you look like death warmed up by maybe...half a degree? I don't want you getting hypothermia." Hux muttered some weak objections, but shuffled over towards him anyway, adding his own blankets to Poe's layers. 

"You don't look so  _ hot _ yourself." 

"Yeah, well..." Poe was sure that under  _ normal _ circumstances he'd have had a great comeback for that, but right now the words seemed to slip just out of reach. "What are you doing?" Hux was fidgeting with something under the blankets, and Poe really hoped it wasn't his not-so-secret knife.

"Here." He handed Poe a ration bar - blumfruit flavour, apparently, although he had his doubts even before peeling back the foil wrapper.

"Thanks," he said, between mouthfuls, leaning into Hux. It wasn't especially easy to get comfortable when the guy was all limbs and sharp angles, even with all those layers of fur and wool. Resting his head on one of Hux's slightly more rounded shoulders was the best he could manage. He didn't really mind when he felt Hux's lips graze against his forehead (quite by accident, he was sure), and even welcomed the gentle warmth of his breath against his skin. 

"Feeling left out, Beebee?" Poe asked, as the astromech made a sound he'd come to recognise as a sigh, "there's room for you, too. At least, unless Hugs wants me all to himself." Hux let out an uncharacteristic snort.

"You have an extremely high opinion of yourself," he said, at the same time as moving even closer to Poe, burying his face in his hat in lieu of his hair.

"Yeah, I'm going to say he's okay with it. Come on in, Beebee." BB-8 chirped away happily as he rolled under the blankets, settling next to his knee. 

And as Poe listened to BB-8's soft whirring and felt the steady beat of Hux's pulse against his cheek, he got to thinking that waiting out this particular storm might not be unbearable.


End file.
